


Conversations at the Edge of Everything

by Star_Nymph



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Afterlife, Character Study, F/M, Grief, Mental Illness, The Lifestream (Compilation of FFVII)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:34:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29149803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_Nymph/pseuds/Star_Nymph
Summary: They had always been orbiting each other, like comets passing each other in the night. Brushing each other but never quite colliding. Now, there was nowhere else to go. The Lifestream had them planted in its river bed. Might as well have a conversation or two, right?Or; Sephiroth and Aerith in the Lifestream, annoying each other for all eternity or until one of them snaps. Whatever comes first.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough & Sephiroth, Aerith Gainsborough/Sephiroth
Kudos: 14





	Conversations at the Edge of Everything

Warmth surrounded him when her back touched his, wisps of green and sickeningly sweet-smelling flowers brushing through his hair. It held him, it smothered him, it choked him. It gave him a headache.

“We’re always orbiting each other, aren’t we?” So said the Ancient and her voice was just as sweet as the scent but it was twinged with something else. It was rueful, begrudging, and like a joke he had somehow missed the humor in. Another poke at his expense. He ignored it, clenching his fist until the leather of his glove cracked. She settled against his back and sighed to those green flickers of life that swirled about her, “It’s so funny when you think about it. We could have met at any time and yet, here we are, two peas in a death pod at the edge of everything. Come on, you have to see the humor in that, right?”

He felt her elbow nudging his side, prompting him for some response, but he gave her nothing. The pest could needle at him all she wanted for however long she wanted but eventually, she would get bored and leave him be. Let him plot and brood or perhaps finally dissolve into the Lifestream and corrode it from the inside out like rot in an apple.

Or sleep.

It had been long since Sephiroth had wanted to sleep; he thinks he had forgotten how.

The Ancient laughed to herself and said, “Of course you do,” and he did not know if she was answering her own infernal question or if she was in his head again. Sephiroth pressed his palm between his brow as if she to shove her out and bent his back from her, but she just followed and leaned back into him. He could kill her. Take his sword to her mouth and cut her annoying little tongue out. Screaming, cursing, squeezing the life from her just to get her out. He hated that she could be inside him on whim, as if he were an open book for her to thumb through at her leisure. Others she had discretion with, asking with careful permission and gentle encouragement to let her dive into their pathetic souls and lay them bare at her boots but him?

It felt like she was playing with him more than anything else—like a toy or a doll or a _puppet_ on a string.

It was disgusting.

And—yes—the irony of it was not lost on him. Once, when she had tugged too long at his frayed emotions, he had shut her out by force and held her at bay by the neck, fingers itching to crush what wasn’t really there. She had only stared at him defiantly and tittered, “what? Don’t like it when the shoe is on the other foot?” He had sworn at her, reasoned that this was _different_. _He_ was different!

He was--

“Quiet.” He bent further into himself, bringing his knee up to rest his head upon it. How can one feel such gnawing weight in their bones when they had none? Was it the ashes of him feeling this? The remnants floating in mako that still held tight to one last sliver of mind?

Or was it his soul being beat at by the Lifestream like the shore to the boulder, day by day a layer eroding for every sin he had committed against the Planet. Oblivion for his punishment, but eons of being stripped down to his most singular atom. 

He frowned at that and scowled at the space between his legs.

What trite rubbish. What _bullshit_.

He’s been here for too long, with her in his ear. In this vast white world of nothingness and everything. Damn pest.

He asked, “Don’t you have Zack to harass? Where is he?”

“Zack is busy. It’s just you and me here in the world.” She sang to him and swirled around him as if she were in a lake of water, her hair rippling in waves around her. She touched his shoulder and brushed her fingers through his bangs. He could see her grin out of the corner of his eye before he shut it tight, “Why? Do you miss him, Sephiroth? Do you miss _anyone_?”

He didn’t answer and she didn’t press but the question hung between them as it always did.

_Can someone as blackhearted as you miss someone? Does your ‘Mother’ let you?_

_No._  
_I don’t know.  
_ _I only ache._

Gods, he wanted to sleep.

A hand cradled the back of his head and she whispered to him, “if that’s what you want”. He heard the jingle of her bracelets just as his vision shattered to black.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!! I hope you enjoyed my test run of this idea. This isn't a new idea of course and this particular story was inspired by the doujinshi 'Rain'. The potential of Sephiroth and Aerith's relationship has always been super fascinating for me and I've always wanted to explore what that would mean if they were sort of stuck together.
> 
> I'm sorry in advance if my writing for Sephiroth isn't wholly correct. It's been 10 full years since I last wrote him and it's a little difficult to get ahold of him again. Hopefully, I'll do better as I go. As for Aerith, you might notice she's being a bit vindictive and that's kind of the point; I love always forgiving Aerith as much as the next guy but I wanted to try a different approach here. I want to explore her resentment towards Sephiroth as much as her curiosity and sympathy; she, after all, can be as petty as she wants to be when she's uuuhhh been stab through. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this and I hope to write some more--I have something already planned for the next chapter that digs deeper into these two. Please comment and leave kudoes if you can and once again thank you for reading!


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